Palo Gallery (New York, NY) presents Down By The Hudson, a long anticipated exhibition by British artist Caleb Stein (b. 1994 United Kingdom). This show will mark Stein's solo debut at the gallery, following the presentation of his duo work with Andrea Orejarena, American Glitch. The exhibition of fifteen photographs represents Stein’s thirteen year long project inspired by the community around one particular watering hole near Poughkeepsie, where Stein continues to spend many of his summer days. Stein found himself repeatedly returning to the swimming hole, and photographing its community and story. This recursive and cumulative project may have had its roots in a form of reportage but quickly morphed into a whispered epic on community, Americana, humanity, ritual, masculinity and freedom.
Stein’s exhibition engages with the historic practice of bathing and the culture we build around it. The German Badekultur of its alpine lakes, the Shinto Misogi purification in natural cold water, the Indian Snanam morning cleansing ritual in moving water, and the ancient baths of Rome are all examples of a deeply human experience we keep returning to. This almost ritualistic gathering appears again in Stein’s watering hole. Stripped of clothes, context, political alignment, or status, Stein’s subjects meet through the vulnerable and equal nature of the swimming hole. The stories that unfold in this natural crucible are his key subject.
This focus on community quietly complicates the great art historical reference of the Hudson Valley. The Hudson Valley School of Cole, Bierstadt, and Church made that rolling and romantic slice of America the school’s artistic symbol for the 19th century. The awe and grandeur of nature was to be a bedrock for a growing nation to expand into, yet these paintings lacked human stories. As those painters showed the expanse, Stein zooms into one pocket and highlights humanity in the wet undergrowth, exploring the true meaning of what it means to be an American.
The America that Stein finds is full of grace, care and, crucially, play! Boys wrestle, currents are fought, and people float away from society in these dreamlike photographs. Friendship, camaraderie and laughter are all present yet the crux of the place Stein explores is in its divisions and polarities. Trump supporters, young men from the city, locals, and everyone in-between who may be antagonistic to one another in other contexts are not met with conflict, rather they co-exist in a place used for gathering of millennia.
In particular what Stein probes in Down By The Hudson is the concept of identity, specifically around masculinity. In many of Stein’s male subjects, we see strength, violence, and fragility. The polarity of these images and subjects that Stein captures creates an idea of manhood that flows with complexity. In Bode & Owen Wrestling their strong bodies stand in vivid contrast to the playful vulnerability of Nick With Flower and Smoke, and yet both represent the same identity. Introspection stands in tension with projection, while the adversarial contrasts with the playful. The ability to capture such a nuanced representation of masculinity and show its vulnerability in the context of our current climate is exceptionally rare.
It is thanks to this studied microcosm that Stein is able to dissect the beautiful intricacy of a community that becomes an allegory for so much more. The curiosity for each subject and the world they have built through the ritual of bathing is done with attention and empathy. It is through this relationship and care that Stein can discover so much and in incredible beauty. Stein’s Edenic work is one of those rarified projects that one can return to over and over and continue to find fresh discoveries, allegories, and connections.
The eagerly anticipated exhibition will be presented alongside a book of the same name published by Palo Gallery Press and designed by Lamotte Studios. Meticulously executed, this book explores the entire corpus of Down By The Hudson with excellent contributions by Matt Carey-Williams, Anita N. Bateman, Amitava Kumar, and a conversation with Daniel Wolff.
This exhibition marks the first in a rollout of solo shows, artists talks, and book signings. Upcoming highlights include exhibitions at Matt Carey-Williams Gallery (London) and Sixteen World (Paris), among others. Additionally, the project will be featured in talks and events at institutions including Le Bal (Paris) and Galleria d’Italia (Turin).
Moreover, this show follows a series of acquisitions of key works in the series by institutions such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the New York State Museum, and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, which earlier this month acquired a further ten photographs from this body of work. The Getty acquired work from the series while the project was still in progress, placing Stein among the youngest living photographers in the museum’s collection.
